Liquid crystal polymer has superior performance but high technical threshold

Liquid crystal polymer in English is Liquid Crystal Polymer, or LCP for short. It is an intermediate state polymer between solid crystal and liquid. Although its molecular arrangement is not three-dimensionally ordered like solid crystalline state, it is not disordered like liquid. Rather, it has a certain (one-dimensional or two-dimensional) orderliness. Industrial Research Center issued the “Global and Chinese LCD in 2021 “Polymer Industry In-Depth Research Report” shows that the global liquid crystal polymer market will grow from US$1.16 billion in 2021 to US$1.87 billion in 2026, with a compound annual growth rate of 10.0%.

The excellent mechanical properties, dimensional stability, electrical properties, chemical resistance, flame retardancy, good processability, good heat resistance, and low thermal expansion coefficient of liquid crystal polymers make them particularly suitable for electrical and electronic applications. Miniaturization of the industry and increase in use of micro-injection molding processes for applications such as connectors with high pin density have been driving significant growth in the liquid crystal polymer market size. In addition, the high temperature resistance, strong mechanical strength, chemical resistance and high dimensional stability of liquid crystal polymers are also very suitable for the electrical and electronic industries. In the electrical and electronics industry, liquid crystal polymers are increasingly used to replace engineering resins to produce ultra-thin components.

                                                                                        The demand scale in the electrical and electronic products field will account for the largest demand share of the liquid crystal polymer market

More and more electronic products are moving toward miniaturization, and electrical and electronic product manufacturers are also simplifying equipment and integrating more functions into smaller packages. For example, compared with old-fashioned power connectors, the spacing (spacing) between contacts in electrical connectors is narrower than before, and is as small as 0.2mm and the spacing exceeds 12.0mm. Liquid crystal polymers are very suitable for application in these increasingly smaller electronic products, so the demand for liquid crystal polymers in the field of electrical and electronic products is increasing.

Medical applications will become the fastest growing downstream application market for liquid crystal polymers

The medical applications of liquid crystal polymers are expected to grow at a high growth rate of 12.6% between 2021 and 2026. The main reason is due to the continuous increase in high-performance material equipment and the acceleration of replacing traditional metal and plastic equipment. These reasons have led to the medical field’s demand for liquid crystals. The demand for polymers is increasing.

​​ ​Liquid crystal polymer films have superior performance, but the technical threshold is extremely high

Liquid crystal polymer film has good flexibility, multi-layer structure design and dielectric properties, which can meet the trend of miniaturization of electronic products and is an ideal substrate for high-frequency flexible copper-clad laminates (FCCL). However, liquid crystal polymer materials have technical bottlenecks such as extremely different vertical and horizontal orientations, difficult to control the processing technology, and easy fibrillation. As a result, the technical threshold for liquid crystal polymer film processing is extremely high and there are few commercially processed products.

Competition in the global liquid crystal polymer market is fierce, with major competitors including: Polyplastics Co., Ltd (Japan), Celanese Corporation (U.S.), Solvay SA (Belgium), Toray Industries, Inc. (Japan) and Sumitomo Chemicals Co. Ltd .(Japan).